–– Clara POV ––
Waking up with a weird feeling was really becoming too normal, this time my right are feeling like it is missing and not missing at the same time, disorienting myself until I had sorted out the differences between my memories and current sensations, slowly reversing my mental lockdown, every single suppressed emotion, memory, feelings slamming into my mind the very next moment, forcing my body to stiffen, before it was over, only a slightly weird feeling remaining.
I woke up in an hospital bed, seeing a man sitting next to my bed, after I had opened my eyes. He was either meditating, cultivating, sleeping or doing something similar, his presence nonexistent, the only indication of his attendance being the void he left in the world, no information leaving the oval around him. I rasped jokingly, my throat dry: „You do need better security wards", triggering a coughing fit and waking the man out of his trance, a water glass appearing in his hands moments later, which he handed to me.
I drank the water in awkward silence, before the man spoke: „I regret the happenings which ended in this result, though sending stage 3 assassins after a student is quite a stretch, fueling such wards permanently not in the least economical. The wards will still get an upgrade, but nothing as sophisticated I am afraid. My deepest apology from the whole Delacour family, for letting something like this happen in our territory. If you are inclined to stay over your break, I will make arrangements, Gabrielle would be more than pleased to show you all of our sights", he smiled fondly at the last part, before standing up, straightening his attire: „Sadly I cannot escape my duties any longer, so I must excuse myself. Inform Gabrielle about your decision, you should be cleared to depart with the rest of your delegation if you decide to not accept the offer. Good days to you.", the man stated, promptly leaving the room, vanishing from my senses in the next instant, everything indicating his presence eradicated, only my memory of the encounter securely preserved.
I was allowed to leave the hospital wing an hour later, all health checks passed flawlessly. I returned to the scene, again communicating with the tree. It tried not to show it, but I clearly saw that it was dying, having overused his still fragile and unstable cores, leading to their slow degradation, his previous sentience no longer as obvious, slowly waning. I gave it a choice. Accept her death, get healed or accompany me, my pocket dimensions abundant mana able to stabilize and even improve her condition. Probably, I was theorizing right now, but the mana was so dense there, that it was incomparably stable. She decided on the third option, hoping for more conversations, though she was reluctant to leave the greenhouse behind. I convinced her, that in time I would create and let her tend to another one, which won her over in the end, the time used for the communication stretching deep into the night, forcefully accepting Delacour's invitation. I could still leave by international portkey, but after all this time, a break would be a nice change and I had neglected Gabrielle over the last few months, feeling kind of guilty about it all.
Transplanting the tree proved rather easy, most roots having withered due to its sacrifice, its previously deeply rooted form barely standing straight, the remaining roots no longer able to supply this tree. I surgically removed the remaining roots from the ground, slowly letting the tree glide to the ground using the levitation charm, before putting the tree into my ring, my mana nearly bottoming out, trying to move such a huge entity through dimensions, barely having enough to finish the transport, not accidentally hurting the tree even more.
I moved to my potion laboratory where I found Gabrielle waiting, smiling brightly: „You are so predictable. Out of the hospital wing and straight back to potions?", she jokingly alleged. „Not quite, I made a stop at the greenhouses, communicating with my lovely lifesaver", I joked back, continuing: „Wanna know a secret?", I playfully asked her, getting an expectant nod in return, before I used my barely regenerated mana to transfer both of us into my pocket dimension. Myself communicating with the tree, who was grateful to have a so much better environment than before, only missing dirt, for which I needed to stave him off for a bit, a huge amount of quality earth not easily aquired.
I ignored the stiffly frozen Gabrielle, barely able to breath, though that changed over the time I needed to communicate, her bloodline apparently mutating under these conditions, transforming her quarter veela heritage into a full blown veela one, while she gained a ridiculous mana affinity through the mutation of her bloodline, her remaining human ancestry integrated into her veela heritage, still staying mostly human, while her bloodline was remarkably pure. I did not know if it mutated into a completely new bloodline or just enhanced her old one, only knowing that I was elated by this random occurrence due to multiple reasons, her potential and talent spiking by a huge margin.
While she continued her transformation, guzzling up environmental mana like there was no tomorrow, I continued communicating with the tree, trying to convey the basic ideas behind occlumency, hoping to slowly teach it, so that the communication would become easier.
After hours, I stopped, the tree having had enough of communicating with me, Gabrielle's mutation slowly coming to an end, her body having had a growth spurt, the previous little girl now standing at my height, as I was weirdly short for a girl of my age.
As Gabrielle snapped out of her forceful trance laughing wildly, before gliding through the mana as if it was not there, myself still not being able to move in the slightest at this density. I let her have her moment, moments, before interrupting: „Welcome in my very own pocket dimension, meet tree, who saved my life just four days ago. He can already communicate through legilimency", I explained, Gabrielle looked perplexed before a meek: „Hello", was heard, still moving through the eye of the storm, her experience and proficiency rapidly increasing the bloodline allowing her to seamlessly connect and control to the mana around her.
We spent the next three days in here, Gabrielle playing around while I cultivated, finishing the merger of the first set of seven rings. Gabrielle's endurance finally waned, her stomach grumbling for food and water, our reemergence coinciding near perfectly with the end of the year feast, which was a tradition both of the schools shared.
Afterwards we needed to make a small detour to my potions laboratory, cleaning it up before a house elf took us to one of Delacour's cottages next to the sea, the content of our rooms at the school already transferred over, both of us collapsing into our beds, asleep before our heads hit the pillows, both of us sleeping till midday, the house elf waking us up to a very satisfying brunch.
The next weeks were filled mostly with tourism, small shopping sprees and a few potion brewing sessions for Gabrielle, coaxing me into supervising her, the little girls insecurities still majorly affecting her, though it ever so slowly got better, the wounds healing with time. We also regularly went into my pocket dimension, Gabrielle still fascinated by her abilities and loving the feeling of gliding unhindered.
The second best thing of the break being chocolate and citrus ice cream, taste testing as many ice-cream vendors as possible.
All good times must come to an end though, the summer break coming to a close way too fast.